Stuff You Can Learn in Your Sleep

Sleep learning has been a theory for as long as I can remember. So many studies have been conducted about sleep learning over the years all with varying degrees of success, but now it seems that sleep learning just may have some validity as long as real study is involved as well.

According to an article in today's Daily mail, science has determined that, with proper study when we are awake, we can reinforce learning while we are asleep. Here are four things we can supposedly learn while we are asleep:

1. Foreign Language - Back in 2014, a study found that subjects remembered foreign words and phrases much better if they listened to them while they were sleeping, but the sleep learning had to be enhanced by study when awake.

2. Play an instrument - This 2012 study from Northwestern found that musicians trying to learn a new song actually played better if they combined regular practice with sleep learning.

3. Aversion to Smoking - This isn't really a learning thing, but researchers found that when we sleep, even smokers don't like the smell of cigarette smoke. A week into the study, researchers found that the smokers who took part in the study were smoking 30% less!

4. People's names -Here's an interesting study. Researchers had groups of people try to learn a group of strangers names. Part of the study group was told to take a nap after learning the names and the other half of the group stayed up. The portion of the group that napped after studying the names scored much better than those who didn't.

Next time you have something important to learn give it a try. Study the material thoroughly then sleep on it while listening to a recording of the material and see if you don't do better. Hey, why not try it? You have to sleep, don't you?